Normally we see about 1000 tornadoes a year. During 2007, 1,300 twisters ripped through the U.S. This barrage of unrelenting windstorms plagued the Midwest and rampaged eastward. Then something new happened: an unheard of twister barreled across Brooklyn, NY.

This year, in a single February night, 68 tornadoes roared through Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. At least 58 people died: 32 in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, 7 in Kentucky and 6 in Alabama. This tornado outbreak was the nation's worst in more than two decades when 76 people were killed in Pennsylvania and Ohio on May 31, 1985. May, not February. The death toll ranks among the top 15 from tornado outbreaks since 1950. Again, this is tornado off-season.

This very out-of-character wild weather has prompted scientists to ask if January is the new March.